Would you eat meat fed on maggots? Raising pigs, chickens and fish on insect larvae could change the way we farm animals, says Nic Fleming

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Millions of maggots squirm over blackened pieces of fruit and bloody lumps of fetid flesh. A pungent stench of festering decay hovers over giant vats of writhing, feasting larvae. It's more than enough to put most people off their lunch. Yet these juvenile flies could soon be just one step in the food chain away from your dinner plate.

Such nausea-inducing scenes are daily occurrences at a test site owned by AgriProtein, a South African company which began building what it says will be the world's largest fly farm a few weeks ago. Others in the US, France, Canada and the Netherlands are also gearing up for large-scale farming of insects to feed chicken, pigs and farmed fish.

Hundreds of people attended the Insects to Feed the World conference in Wageningen in the Netherlands earlier this month. Many of them are convinced that bugs can provide a sustainable alternative to more conventional but increasingly expensive cereals, fishmeal and soybeans.

While it may be normal for chickens scratching around a farmyard to gobble up grubs and bugs, until now no-one has taken it to an industrial scale or fed insects to animals that eat other foods in the wild. So can consumers stomach the idea of tucking into smoked salmon, chicken burgers and pork chops that come from maggot-fed animals?

Flies are bred on a large scale, and their eggs then mixed in with food waste (Science Photo Library) The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that population growth and increased demand for meat and fish will require 70% more feed for cattle by 2050. This will put extra strain on arable land, and further pressure on fish stocks; currently, a third of the fish landed gets turned into meal to feed animals. And the cost of feeding livestock has soared. "Ingredients for traditional animal feeds are becoming increasingly expensive, especially fishmeal because of over-exploitation of the oceans," says Arnold van Huis, an entomologist at Wageningen University, and co-author of The Insect Cookbook, an English translation of which was published in March. "Cereals are used but the nutritional profile of plant proteins is not good enough. Soya is high in protein but prices have also risen sharply. We need alternatives."

It is hardly surprising that entrepreneurs are investigating new possibilities.

Different kinds of insects could be used to create different feeds for each growth stage in an animal's life (Protix) AgriProtein announced earlier this month that it had raised $11m to build its first two commercial-scale farms. The first, in Cape Town, will create 20 tonnes of larvae and 20 tonnes of fertiliser per day.

It uses three species – the black soldier fly, the blowfly and the common housefly. Each is adapted to feed on different types of waste, and their meals include leftover or spoiled food, manure and abattoir waste. Males and females are bred in giant cages and their eggs are extracted and mixed with its food. One kilogram of eggs turns into around 380kg of larvae in just three days. The larvae are then extracted, dried and milled, leaving behind nitrogen-rich material for compost.

AgriProtein’s Magmeal product is approved as a feed for chickens and fish in South Africa. The company is also preparing to apply for approval for an iron-rich product made from larvae fed on blood and guts for use as an additive for breeding sows; piglets aren’t born with enough iron, and in the wild animals usually get what they need from soil. In captivity, they need iron supplements.